Sunday Stuff or You Know its Cold When

Ok you know its cold when you walk into your house and the furnace is running. What is significant about that you may wonder? Well my furnace was turned down to 10 C. (I have not turned in on this year yet). It got cold enough in here that the furnace came on all by its self. I was going to turn  it on this weekend but Mother Nature beat me to the punch. The flannel sheets go on the bed tonight. I have been meaning to do it for a while now but today is the day. I don't want to walk into my bedroom and see Mother Nature remaking the bed because my own dumb self has not gotten around to it.  Icy sheets have lost their appeal. Hot flashes be darned, I need some snugly soft sheets.

I have been a busy bunny, No time for much of anything this week and I LIKE IT. I have had something on the agenda every night and its been wonderful!! Started out with an evening spent attached to my sewing machine doing all my mending jobs, then Book Club, then local theater production of Shrek, then No Cook Friday, Saturday trip to the big city to shop out Ikea and Costco, then off today to another city to have my cards read with friends. I am at last at home and trying to do somethings about the house before Monday then I am back to work and  off to the ballet in the evening.

For someone who still has not dealt with all the things that she brought back from Ireland, the Ikea and Costco booty don't stand much of a chance. My house could star on Hoarders at the moment. This afternoon  I did manage laundry, dishes and soup making. I have moved half the Costco stuff to my kitchen and out of the entry way. I have sorted out the Christmas gifts from what is mine in the Ikea bags and that is it so far. Oh yes and I am washing and re-blocking a piece of cross stitch for a friend.

I have to finish my puppets for the sale on this coming Saturday. I have one mouse and a turtle to create then I will have all I am taking with me. I have to do the neck inserts, a neck insert is a small pocket sewn into the neck of each puppet to keep the stuffing in their little heads and allow your finger to slide into the head with ease. Sounds painful but I assure you the puppet feels nothing. I have not done one of them yet and I have over 60 puppets. I see nothing but little neck inserts in my coming week. I should have done them as I went along but I didn't because for some reason I don't like making them. Its strange I know but I just don't like doing them. Perhaps I will develop a fondness for them after 60 all at once.

So speaking of puppets I need to get at the last two. I hope you all have had a lovely weekend.

Toodles
Linda

Giving Thanks

Just home from a lovely weekend with family. The Carpenter and Busy invited me to come and share the weekend, turkey dinner and some family time with them. We had such a good weekend. The Carpenter was working, that man is always working but we did get to see him in between jobs. Busy and I get along very well and as a result we managed to put in the time very nicely. It was a weekend spent catching up on all the family news and baby talk.

I helped her finish canning her tomatoes, I subjected them to my Ireland pictures and I finally got to see her pictures from Peru. We had lunch with her Mother, went for a walk on a perfect Autumn day and we ate. Lordy we ate well. One never goes away hungry from their house. None of the kids were home but there were lot of photos of the little Farmer Boy to be oggled and I even got to see him on skype. Squeee!!! I cannot wait to get my hands on the little man. I hear from very reliable sources that he is a snuggle bug who loves to cuddle up with you. We had a full turkey dinner, and their boarder, a handsome young man who comes from Poland, joined us for the feast.

As always, Thanksgiving makes me look back and think over all that I have to be thankful for and trust me the list is miles long. I am blessed with a good family, good home, extremely good friends and  a very good life. Its a lot be grateful for and I cherish each and every one of my blessings. I got to go to Ireland (a life long dream come true) I am going to finally get to go to the Huron Carole, and my No Cook Friday Group is still going strong after three years of getting together. I could go on and on and on, but I will say there is one bright and shinning moment in the year that out does all the rest.

It is captured in this one picture. This fills my heart, and leaks out my eyes with happiness. Seeing this happiest of smiles on this most beloved face, put there by  the precious bundle snuggled safely in his Mommy's arms is almost more happy than I can stand.

Words fail to convey the feeling but know that this grateful feeling  is big and grand and heartfelt. If this feeling makes me puddle up when I think about it, I think I am entitled. Sweet baby boy, you have been wanted, expected, loved, prayed and hoped for, you are a wish come true.

Welcome, welcome Little Farmer Boy, I loved you before I met you and I am so glad you are part of our family. 

Toodles

Great Aunty Linda

Weekend Windup

Why is it the weekends just fly by? There is never enough time to get everything done and its Sunday night the second after its Friday 4:30. I certainly enjoy my weekends I just wish they were longer.More time, more energy and more things crossed off the old "to do" list.

Its been a lovely weekend, cool and crisp. I love Autumn. I love the colours and the coolness to the air. I have decided that its time to get out the flannel sheets and shut the windows at night. Sigh. Time just keeps moving on.

I actually made a big pot of vegetable soup tonight. Its delicious, if I do say so myself. A big bowl of soup and herbed biscuits with sweet butter were a perfect supper for this fall day. I finally have something to take for lunch next week. I have to get back on track again, take off all the pounds that have snuck back onto me again. Dang things never seem to go too far before they are back again. So its got to be back to healthy eating and back to walking again. I am soooo tired of dragging this around with me.

This weekend I did precious little in my house, no yard work but I did do some knitting and worked on some puppets. The Banker and I went over to Teddy Bear's house and we tiled some trim around her bath tub. It looks really good. It took all after noon Saturday because we spend more time chatting, drinking coffee and giggling than actually working.

Today I was at Hummingbird's house, helping her get her head wrapped around making slip covers for her couch and chairs. I did precious little but offer the odd suggestion and guide her along. She has the right idea but she needs a little courage to make the start. I cannot wait to see the finished project. I think she is going to do a fabulous job.

I came home from there, did laundry, made soup and knit. Oh yes and I continued to order prints of my Ireland pictures. This is proving to be a lengthy process. I do not care, it gives me a chance to look them over again and again and again. I will eventually have a photo album to take to show people and lots more prints to keep to myself. No one will want to be subjected to having to look at all of the pictures. I have a lot of them :-)

Miss Mouse called this afternoon with emails and pictures of the quilt set she wants for the Farmer Boy's nursery. I am as happy as a wiggly puppy over this. I have waited for years to be able to do this for her. She has picked her own pattern and material, I shall simply do that assembling. I am looking foreward to it. I love to make baby things. With Mamabug expecting again and the Farmer Boy showing up I have the potential to get to do more than one or two baby things. Happy! Happy! Happy!

Toodles,

Linda

I Am Still Here

Poor sad, neglected little blog. I have been ignoring you of late. Seems there are not enough hours in the day for me to be day dreaming, ignoring housework and not doing what I should be doing. Well actually I have been busy, purging, recovering pillows and working on my Ireland pictures. I am in the process of ordering prints and its taking an age. That's what you get when you run amok with the camera. I do not care, I have had my wonderful trip and I am determined to have the pictures to remember it by. So slowly and steadily I am sending them off to be printed out and I will have a delightful time sorting them out, making albums and scrap-booking some.

I purged out two big boxes and a garbage bag of stuff out of the dining room and kitchen, sadly without really trying too hard. It all went off to the Canadian Diabetes Association today. Sadly, as always with my efforts to purge, the results are not visible to any eye but my own. Ah well, I have started now I need to continue on. There is a gold mine of purging to be done in this house. I think one room at a time and I shall start upstairs. I should pick one night a week and make that my goal. My weekends are not long enough.

I have puppets to finish for the craft sale in October, quilts to be done and delivered before Christmas, knitting and painting to be done. So much on the list and yet I opt to spend my weekends out and about instead of being at home. It will all get done, it will all work out and I will be all the happier for it. I love to have lots of things to do and lots of plans with friends.

This weekend I hope to get some yard work done. I plan to change the bed of day lilies  into a hosta bed. This means I need to make a date with my shovel. I also have a dead dogwood bush that needs to be dug out so it can be replaced next spring. Sunday is earmarked for these jobs. I am going to help do some tiling in Teddy Bear's bathroom on Saturday. What time is left over from that will be spent on groceries, errands and house cleaning. The shed needs to be finished painting, mosaic stars to be created, and the list goes on and on. AND yes I know I have nattered on about this before but if I do not keep repeating it now and then I will not keep all the projects first and foremost in my mind. I shall see something shiny and be off on another tangent.

I have plans for the creation of some little things for the new little farmer boy in the family. I am making a trip in early November to make his acquaintance and I cannot wait. This special little man, I have been waiting and praying for for a long time. I am tickled pink to know he is part of the family and I cannot wait to get my hands on him. I have several things in mind and I have also realized that I need to make his loot bag for Christmas. Little Man needs to have a place to put his stocking stuffers.

So as you can see I am alive, spinning in circles as I usually do, thousands of plans and projects to be done and not enough time or ambition to do them all. In other words situation normal.

I shall be back soon. I will keep you posted as to the progress. I trust all is well with you.

Toodles,
Linda

The Fish and Chips Have Come Home to Roost.

So after waltzing all over Ireland and indulging in fish and chips, scones and bacon, (oh my the bacon), Guinness and wine with supper. I stepped on the dreaded scales the other morning. Crappity crap crap. Apparently I brought more home with me than just Irish knick knacks. Those yummy chips and fish have come home to roost all right, right on my butt, thighs, belly and anywhere else they could cling. I willingly undid all the good I did before I left and am back to square one. (Sigh). There is something innately wrong with the fact the pounds go on so much faster and easier than they come off. Time to get back to working on this again. Walking, eating healthy and generally starting from ground zero and heading up again. Oh bother.

I would like to say I regret it all but I don't. I loved every single mouthful and enjoyed myself to the full. Ireland was a dream come true and I made the most of my time there. I will now slide back into my routine again, battling this weight thing, ah yes the fight of a life time. Go me!!

Next week I will get back to the walking track, I have not been there for a long time and it really is the best thing for me. I can actually do it. I don't like it but I can do it.

Right now, I am going to go play on Pinterest!!

Toodles,
Linda

I Have Been To Ireland!! Pinch Me!!

One week ago today I landed back in Canada having accomplished the dream of a life time. I could not believe it was going to happen, then I could not believe it was happening and now I cannot believe it happened and its over and yet I have pictures and memories to prove it happened. I would go back in a heart beat. Lovely country and wonderful people. It was all I wanted from a vacation and more.

I went with The Banker. She is a wonderful travel companion. We managed two weeks together and we are still friends at the end of it. We did not do a tour, we were on our own time table, we started in Belfast.

This charming little bed and breakfast welcomed us in for the first three days. We made the Titanic museum a first see.

Between the Banker and I we took over 1500 pictures. Before you faint I will not inflict them all on you, I will try and hit the highlights. We saw old castles.

Gorgeous scenery. Yes this place really is as green as they say it is;

Lots of fat and happy sheep grazing in tiny little fields.

We say the ocean

The Giant's Causeway:

We moved on to Gallway, which is a pretty little city full of tiny windy streets and quaint shops.

Neat old pubs. We checked out several all over Ireland and had our fair share of Guinness. We sat in side in this one, just inside where the open window is. Its really old!!

We did a day tour out to the Cliffs of Moher, with some stops along the way:

An ancient Church

A burial sight that is thousands of years old but I don't have a picture of it because The Banker took the picture and I don't have her's yet. But I do have a picture of the cliffs.

Still cannot believe I was there!!

On to Limmerick and the River Shannon

Then a day at Bunratty Castle, and the folk park, topped off with a medieval feast!!

I cannot believe I climbed these narrow windy stairs but I did wish on this fertility goddess for Miss Mouse and the Farmer!! IT worked we now have a little Farmer Boy!!

We then moved onto Cork and Blarney Castle

That fuzzy blob up there is the Banker kissing the Blarney Stone. I did not make the climb, I was happy to sit and watch. I have enough blarney in me already.

Wexford was next. No a really big tourist area but we walked the little winding streets and shopped and had a lovely day anyway.

This was the view out our hotel room. Not too shabby.

Winding narrow streets, quaint little shops, lots of pubs and cafes were the pattern for each city we were in. We moved on from Wexford to Dublin. A city that is a thousand years old. We toured it all, saw Trinity College and the book of Kells, The Temple Bar area and the Guinness storehouse.

This is the Zero Gravity  lounge at the top of the storehouse. We downed a free pint of Guinness while looking out over a 360 degree view of Dublin. AMAZING

Fabulous architecture, something new to see around every corner. All top soon we were back in Belfast and at the airport headed home.

Its just memories now but oh what wonderful memories. I will cherish them. Not often your life long dreams come true. This one did for me and I cannot articulate what that means to me.

Slainte Mhaith!!

Linda

Home From Ireland

Yes I am back, I had the best vacation ever and I have loads of stories and pictures to share. I will be doing a post really soon. Right now I am trying to get my mind back to reality, dealing with a stuffed up nose and rooting through my treasures that I brought back with me.

Best News ever is that while I was away, Miss Mouse and the Farmer welcomes a little Farmer Boy to the family, premature, but healthy and strong, he is a most welcome and wanted addition to our family. I am over the moon happy for them and I cannot wait to see him.

Now I am headed to the shower, then off to run some errands then back home to chill out and try to convince myself that I am back to work tomorrow.

Toodles,
Linda